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Tag: surveillance video

First Image of the Trinastich Surveillance Camera

Officer Scott Coonrod turned his bodycam off when Detective Baumhover pulled up at 14:35, so the two could have a discreet tete-a-tete. Unfortunately, by the time Coonrod turned it back on he was already under the alcove and approaching the door of neighbor Nate Trinastich’s house.

This is why we don’t see the surveillance camera.

I did manage to catch this grab from the video below. The color of the face-brick and orientation looks about right. I asked the maker of the film directly if he zoomed in to get this image, and if he had the original image [perhaps less zoomed in] at which point he stopped communicating.

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It could be that the area highlighted below, which shows a reflection of Coonrod as he approaches Trinastich’s front door, is the location of the surveillance video.

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A Closer Look at the Moment Watts Moved the Bodies of Shan’ann, Bella and Celeste from the House to the Truck

Nathaniel Trinastich is mentioned twice in Chris Watts’ arrest affidavit; once in the actual narrative and once as a witness. It was Trinastich who provided investigators with the gamechanging video surveillance that showed not only Chris Watts backing up his truck and leaving on the morning of the murders, but also that no one else left the Watts home that morning.

Since the Watts home had its own cameras, it seemed unlikely Watts didn’t know the neighbors had one too. When Nickole Atkinson arrived at the house, Watts saw her on his porch camera [relayed to his smartphone].

When questioned about this, Watts apparently confirmed to Addy Molony that he knew about the camera at the Trinastich’s next door.Fullscreen capture 20181130 051154Fullscreen capture 20181130 075602

Nick Thayer also knew that Watts knew about Trinastich’s camera.

Chris Watts: The Gamechanging Video Surveillance Footage – where’d it come from?

So if he knew he was on camera, why did he think he could get away with a triple homicide?

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For starters the view of the driveway is blocked by a boundary tree, and also by the outer edge of the Watts residence [it juts forward]. So Watts was likely aware that while the surveillance video captured him, it couldn’t see everything he was doing, and since he went to work each day, the small area showing him leaving wouldn’t reveal any more than him simply leaving to go to work on an average work day.

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Even so, Watts seems to take precautions by mostly loading the bodies on the side of the truck that’s opposite [and out of view] of surveillance camera. When he does appear on the camera side, he’s carrying what appears to be a red gas can or toolbox.

Watts himself is also dressed in dark clothes: a dark shirt, navy blue baggy trousers and black boots [though not the boots he normall wore]. chris-watts-gas-can

In his haste to get dressed, probably due to frantic cleaning up operations inside the home [showering, vacuuming, wiping Shan’ann’s handset, cleaning, re-clothing Shan’ann’s body, doing the laundry, wrapping Shan’ann’s body in a sheet and the children in garbage bags] Watts forgets to tuck in his one trouser leg.

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Watts also moves the pick-up forward slightly at some point during the operation, so that it’s completely obscured behind the neighbor’s tree. While the truck is idling, he also turns off the light that’s shining almost directly into the neighbor opposite’s window.

When he drives off, he turns left onto Steeple rock Drive, which is the shortest route out of the neighborhood, and the one he usually took on his daily communute. Conveniently it meant he didn’t drive into clear view of the camera. This also explains why Atkinson’s vehicle is seen arriving but not leaving.

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Chris Watts: The Gamechanging Video Surveillance Footage – where’d it come from?

Nathaniel Trinastich is mentioned twice in Chris Watts’ arrest affidavit; once in the actual narrative and once as a witness. It was Trinastich who provided investigators with the gamechanging video surveillance that showed not only Chris Watts backing up his truck and leaving on the morning of the murders, but also that no one else left the Watts home that morning.

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The semantics of the affidavit are worth noting: Nicole’s vehicle is shown leaving and Chris Watts’ truck is observed hours later backing into the driveway and leaving. But the Trinastich home isn’t opposite the Watts home, it’s adjacent on the right.

So how the heck did the surveillance camera see anything?

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Google Maps is hinky when it comes to newly rising subdivisions. The satellite images above do show the Trinastich home at 2905 Saratoga Trail. Despite the odd numbering, 2905 is indeed next to 2825. But Street View doesn’t show either house at ground level. We’ll get to that it a moment.Fullscreen capture 20181028 174323

Notice how the house on the left of the Watts home blocks out a view of #2825 because of the way the building extends forward onto the front lawn. So from the garage and front door on that neighbor’s side, there’s no direct line-of-sight to the Watts garage and front door.

The other house – Trinastich, on the right – has no such problem. In fact the garage is almost level, just slightly back from the Watts garage, which means a camera is set slightly behind the Watts driveway – an ideal position to spy on late night fumblings in and out of the garage.

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In front of the Watts home and slightly to the left is a T-junction, which also means both houses opposite have limited line-of-sight of the front of the Watts home.

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Those houses opposite on Steeple Rock Drive are oriented towards each other but away from the Watts house.

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The foliage beside the Watts’ garage on the boundary with the Trinastich property also interrupts line-of-sight, but at night, a camera wouldn’t need to pick up anything more than the illumination of headlights as they move onto and off the driveway, and that’s what Trinastich’s did.

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A 39-year-old Nathaniel Trinastich is listed on Fastpeoplesearch.com.

This is him:

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This image and the two below were posted onto Nathan Trinastich’s Facebook page.

Now let’s orient ourselves on what Trinastich’s house looks like, as well as the neighboring houses on the ground.

The two houses on opposite shoulders of Steeple Rock Drive are familiar from the two hailstorm videos Shan’ann recorded on June 18 and 19.

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Street View, as mentioned, got to Saratoga Trail before the Trinastich home went up and before the Watts home was built as well.Fullscreen capture 20181028 181224

Fortunately there are a few images of the outside of the Trinastich home courtesy of Nathan Trinastich himself.

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Below is a nocturnal view of the blue-walled house in front of the Watts and Trinastich homes taken during the candlelight vigil.

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The Trinastich home was kitted out with the same garage door design as the Watts house, including the small square windows along the top of the doors. From the zoomed in image below, there doesn’t appear to be any doorbell camera fitted to the front door, at least not when this photo was taken.

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If the Watts family were Steelers fans, the Trinastich’s were big Denver Broncos supporters.

I was able to trace the anonymous image of a couple paying their respects at front lawn of the Watts home to an orange Bronco’s cap in Trinastich’s home, posted on social media. More than likely the couple are the Trinastichs who’ve walked over from next door to inspect the toy memorial.

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These neighbors [below] on the other hand are clearly not the Trinastichs.

One of the best views of the Trinastich’s home – which is dwarfed by the Watts mansion – is from this unusual view.

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It’s still not evident where the surveillance camera was situated at the front of the Tristnatich home. It may be, like the Watts come, through the front door if the camera was installed later, perhaps even at the same time the Watts family installed theirs.

Read more about the front door latch and camera here.

Perhaps Chris Watts didn’t see Trinastich’s camera or consider it because of the large leafy tree plumb in front of the house on the front lawn. That tree was obviously in full flourish in mid-summer when Shan’ann and the children were killed.

It may also be that the camera was a dashcam, but then the arrest affidavit has made an error. There is a censored section in the affidavit that may or may not refer to a dashcam.

In my opinion, the censored text refers to the Trinastich street number. A dashcam with the car parked facing the garage would also be unlikely to provide a rear view.

It’s also possible, since Trinastich’s an outdoors-man, that he used a camouflaged camera.